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Obviously the prices of autographed cards are not on the decline rather the quality of said signature. One reason I think the quality has headed south is the fact that when rookies are contracted to sign for different card companies they are required to sign far too many autographs. In order to fulfill their contractual obligations rookies look for the quickest way to sign thus the initial-graphs that have hit the market in the past few years. I for example have a Steve Breaston sage autograph, the first autos produced each year. The Sage autograph has a nice full legible signature, now Breaston has resorted to a simpler, disappointing SB initial-graph. How can you remedy this? How can you bring the art of a good autograph back? Well there are a couple of options. First cut down on the amount of autographs being signed. Who really wants to sign their name well over a thousand times? They have already been paid so they are signing as fast as possible to get it out of the way and to move onto something a little more fun then signing stickers. Second more on card autographs. You can fit a better autograph on something bigger than an inch and a half by half inch sticker. The more space the better as far as I am concerned. Finally, tell the companies to demand better autographs. If Topps or Upper Deck declines to pay an athlete for an initial-graph or only offers half the pay for half the effort I‘ll bet you eight times out of ten there will be a better autograph on its way.